Let's Talk...

This is going to have to be brief because I am getting up early tomorrow to go to Napa. My life is hard. But I digress…

I’ve had a number of interviews over the past couple weeks and I have a few more still coming up. At this point, it is safe to say that I have extensive interview experience. Unfortunately, I apparently have extensive experience interviewing in a manner that does NOT get me hired. It’s like I learned how to drive in London and then tried to pass the driving test in Illinois, visibly confused about the whole “driving on the right” concept the entire time. What do you mean I didn’t pass?!

I was recently discussing my epic interview failure with one of my good friends and she offered advice that was stunning in both its simplicity and brilliance: approach the interview as a conversation. In theory, this is a great idea; instead of spouting off canned phrases and trite responses, just have a really great chat with your interviewer. In practice, however, interviews make me crazy nervous and I tend to default back to Formal McFormal Candidate. Is that me? No. Is that me in an interview? I plead da Fif’.

What I really need to do is freaking relax during interviews, and in order to feel relaxed, I need a receptive audience. Alas, interviewers cannot always be relied upon to be an enthusiastic crowd. This is unfortunate for me because I would like to secure employment sometime this century, and unfortunate for interviewers because I have some downright entertaining stories, some in fact that would even be appropriate to share in a professional environment.

Key takeaway: Continue to push the interview envelope. I’m not recommending that you dye your hair purple, but try to push past the tendency to default to certain behaviors during interviews. I promise that I’ll try to have an actual conversation at my next interview...